God approves of ADC

American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC) is excited that the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) has opened up a new channel of income for it: “sadaka” (sic). On July 19, 2010 FCNA issued a fatwa (religious opinion) that ADC is eligible to receive this form of Islamic charity.

This fatwa is problematic and offensive to Islamic sensibilities on many levels. First, the ADC does not deserve Muslims’ money. The ADC has consistently undermined the struggle for Muslim rights both in the US and abroad. It has invited war criminals who have Muslims’ blood on their hands, most notably Bill Clinton and Colin Powell.

It should come as no surprise that FCNA issued this fatwa. FCNA, like its sister affiliate ISNA, gives more priority to giving a Muslim face to American empire than to mobilize its membership to throw a wrench in the imperialist war machine. It is insulting to the Islamic religion to use fatwa-granting authority to reward ADC opportunists. The ADC, FCNA and ISNA have kept the bar of the Arab-American and Muslim-American communities’ activism low. Instead of mobilizing people on the grassroots level to stand up for themselves and their oppressed brethren abroad, these groups have encouraged spinelessness and cowardice.

It has become unimaginable that Muslims and Arabs in the US react to their own oppression or to massacres in Afghanistan and Iraq the way African-Americans, for example, conducted the civil rights movement in the sixties. Maneuvered by a collaborating leadership, the Arab and Muslim American communities rarely do sit-ins, civil disobedience, boycotts or uprisings no matter how many bombs rain on innocent Afghani and Iraqi civilians.

Arab and Muslim communities in the US have faced civil liberties violations, arbitrary detentions, ethnic profiling and islamophobia. Discussion of those practices are beyond the scope of this article. Our focus is on the community’s leadership, which has not helped to meaningfully confront these troubling measures. The community generally has learned to be scared, to hide in the shadows pending the empire’s approval of the limitations of its discourse and activism. If and when Arab and Muslim Americans are politically active, the majority of their actions do not threaten the status quo. They are encouraged to write letters to politicians, to “yalla vote” and to lobby, repressing the dignified outrage that they could and should sense at massacres committed by the US government.

ADC instills in Arab children at a very young age to engage in these futile, self-delusional practices “Suggest ways that s/he can help from here in the U.S.: writing letters to officials calling for the end of the war, raising money for anti-war and humanitarian organizations, volunteering for a local organization are some ideas”; “Children can also write to the President [and other elected officials] asking for a speedy end to the war so American troops can return home.”

The ADC gives Arabs and Muslims the impression that a right is a favor they should thank their masters for, not something they inherently deserve:

“We commend the statements of Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell and the numerous senators and members of Congress who have cautioned against attempts to stigmatize the Arab-American and American Muslim communities or blame them for this tragedy.”

While ADC occasionally objects to clear-cut cases of racism, its “positive” efforts only aim to apply a façade of political correctness to make things slightly more comfortable for itself in the House.  Rather than speaking the community’s conscience, the ADC has applauded enemies of humanity for crumbs they have thrown to Arab and Muslim causes. For example:

“ADC Applauds Blair’s Support for a Palestinian State”

“ADC Hails President Bush on Palestinian State”

“ADC Welcomes Secretary Powell’s Statement that the Occupation Must End”

“ADC Welcomes Bush Call For Ending Israeli Offensive, Endorses Powell Mission”

“ADC Welcomes Administration Commitment to Palestinian Statehood”

“The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) welcomes comments from President Bush and Secretary of State Powell that distance the Administration from continuing anti-Islam remarks made by several evangelical leaders.”

Is FCNA aware that the ADC supported US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, a majority Muslim country:

“The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) today expressed support for actions by the United States to bring to justice the criminals behind the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington, DC”

Is FCNA aware that the ADC hosted Colin Powell a mere four months after presenting a false case to the United Nations about non-existent Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to propagate for a war that has killed over a million Iraqis to date?

Does FCNA know that the ADC hosted Bill Clinton at its 2009 convention, one of the most pro-Israeli presidents in history, who had also sanctioned Iraq for eight years? What did FCNA think was Islamic about that?

One could understand FCNA’s approval of the ADC had it, say, organized an Arab-American, Muslim-American strike against the wars and occupations. Or had it organized its interns to do civil disobedience at the White House. Or had it declared a moratorium on working with US administrators, legislators and government branches until Arab and Muslims’ civil liberties are fully respected.

Another reason this fatwa is unwarranted is that the ADC already receives ample funding from US allies, Gulf oil sheikhs. “Prince Alwaleed [bin Talal Al Saud] donated $2.6million toward the purchase of ADC‘s present National headquarters.” Muslim American’s money is better donated to people who are actually disenfranchised and who receive no funding from rich, undemocratic US allies.

Ikhras issues the following counter-fatwa:

It is haram (forbidden) to donate to the ADC until such time that it:
1) ceases to host and engage with war criminals;
2) apologizes to the Afghani, Iraqi and Palestinian people for undermining their causes;
3) ceases to express gratitude for common sense, politically correct statements by politicians;
4) ceases to receive funding from Gulf Arabs and other such undemocratic entities.

Tags: ADC, Alwalid bin Talal, FCNA, House Arabs

This entry was posted on August 21, 2010 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Ikhras. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.